# The current second Trump administration: a compendium of horrors **URL:** \ **Category:** Politics & Elections\ **Tags:** trump\ **Created:** [November 6, 2024, 9:17am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-current-second-trump-administration-a-compendium-of-horrors/1009774 "2024-11-06T09:17:12Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 97
**Author:** ![Johnny\_L.A](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/johnny_l.a/32/1084_2.png) [@Johnny\_L.A](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Johnny_L.A)\ **Post date:** [July 2, 2025, 2:05pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-current-second-trump-administration-a-compendium-of-horrors/1009774/1922 "2025-07-02T14:05:00Z")
> [@Fear\_Itself](#): > > Twenty GOP House members vow to not vote for the bill passed by the Senate. [Leo Gorcey] I’ll see it when I believe it. [/LG] ---
**Author:** ![Fear\_Itself](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/fear_itself/32/19637_2.png) [@Fear\_Itself](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Fear_Itself)\ **Post date:** [July 2, 2025, 6:20pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-current-second-trump-administration-a-compendium-of-horrors/1009774/1923 "2025-07-02T18:20:40Z")
It might have legs… > Freedom Caucus attacks Senate megabill in 3-page dissection > > The document circulated Wednesday as GOP leaders sought the hard-liners’ support. [https://www.politico.com/live-updates/2025/07/02/congress/freedom-caucus-memo-gop-megabill-00437375](https://www.politico.com/live-updates/2025/07/02/congress/freedom-caucus-memo-gop-megabill-00437375) ---
**Author:** ![crowmanyclouds](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/crowmanyclouds/32/19884_2.png) [@crowmanyclouds](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/crowmanyclouds)\ **Post date:** [July 2, 2025, 6:29pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-current-second-trump-administration-a-compendium-of-horrors/1009774/1924 "2025-07-02T18:29:40Z")
But, as I expected, because it’s not vicious enough, > TOPLINE: This Senate bill – relative to the House: 1) increases deficits 1. waters down the already only partial repeal of the “Green New Scam” leaving, at best, 50% intact 2. fails to ensure illegals are fully removed from Medicaid rolls 3. eliminates the prohibition on Medicaid and CHIP funding for transgender surgeries 4. only limits Planned Parenthood funding for one year not ten, 5. contains excessive pork for Alaska and Hawaii, 6. includes more expensive SALT provisions (for just 5 years to reduce the “cost” as a gimmick) to bail out blue states in high tax jurisdictions electing socialists to run their cities. [https://www.politico.com/f/?id=00000197-cbfe-da98-a3b7-fbfeff590000](https://www.politico.com/f/?id=00000197-cbfe-da98-a3b7-fbfeff590000) How vicious you ask, > The Senate weakens the House-passed bill’s common-sense reforms to implement strong work > requirements by raising the age of children for parents to be exempt to age 14 from 7, ---
**Author:** ![Fear\_Itself](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/fear_itself/32/19637_2.png) [@Fear\_Itself](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Fear_Itself)\ **Post date:** [July 2, 2025, 6:55pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-current-second-trump-administration-a-compendium-of-horrors/1009774/1925 "2025-07-02T18:55:20Z")
> [@crowmanyclouds](#): > > But, as I expected, because it’s not vicious enough True, but if they try to change it back, it has to be passed by the Senate again. ---
**Author:** ![SunUp](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/ea5d25/32.png) [@SunUp](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/SunUp)\ **Post date:** [July 2, 2025, 8:23pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-current-second-trump-administration-a-compendium-of-horrors/1009774/1926 "2025-07-02T20:23:04Z")
They’re not going to change it back. Trump is going to talk to the one of the 20 in the weakest position. He’s going to offer some select executive-branch incentives, along with some threats about about what the FBI, IRS and ICE could do to that member’s family and business. Once that member folds like a cheap suit, it will be on to the next one. The pressure on the holdouts will increase with each one he turns. He’ll roll up the “Freedom ‘Caucus’” like a throw rug, give them something they can crow about like “a promise from the President to establish a blue-ribbon committee to address our nation’s fiscal issues” or something like that, and the bill will be on Trump’s desk to sign this Friday. ---
**Author:** ![Spectre\_of\_Pithecanthropus](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/spectre_of_pithecanthropus/32/12343_2.png) [@Spectre\_of\_Pithecanthropus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Spectre_of_Pithecanthropus)\ **Post date:** [July 6, 2025, 8:03am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-current-second-trump-administration-a-compendium-of-horrors/1009774/1927 "2025-07-06T08:03:20Z")
> [@Mops](#): > > How can a legislator introduce or promote such legislation without perishing of embarrassment? That’s the language of _young children_.) The same way their master and his cronies appear on international TV wearing plastic Adjust-O-Strap ball caps. They seem to handle that with aplomb. ---
**Author:** ![Spectre\_of\_Pithecanthropus](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/spectre_of_pithecanthropus/32/12343_2.png) [@Spectre\_of\_Pithecanthropus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Spectre_of_Pithecanthropus)\ **Post date:** [July 6, 2025, 8:07am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-current-second-trump-administration-a-compendium-of-horrors/1009774/1928 "2025-07-06T08:07:52Z")
> [@Horatius](#): > > Surely you must be joking. Strange as it seems, Shirley was originally a male name. Shirley Povich, the father of TV talk show host Maury Povich, was a prominent sports journalist. ---
**Author:** ![ThelmaLou](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/thelmalou/32/390_2.png) [@ThelmaLou](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ThelmaLou)\ **Post date:** [July 8, 2025, 3:35pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-current-second-trump-administration-a-compendium-of-horrors/1009774/1929 "2025-07-08T15:35:59Z")
**WTF??** > # IRS says churches can now endorse political candidates > > [IRS says churches can now endorse political candidates : NPR](https://www.npr.org/2025/07/08/nx-s1-5460886/irs-now-says-pastors-can-endorse-political-candidates) > > In a break with decades of tradition, the Internal Revenue Service says it will allow houses of worship to endorse candidates for political office without losing their tax-exempt status. > > The surprise announcement came in a[court document](https://storage.courtlistener.com/recap/gov.uscourts.txed.232590/gov.uscourts.txed.232590.35.0.pdf) filed on Monday. > > … > > In Monday’s court filing, the IRS didn’t go that far. But it did say that when a house of worship “in good faith speaks to its congregation, through its customary channels of communication on matters of faith in connection with religious services, concerning electoral politics viewed through the lens of religious faith” it neither participates nor intervenes in a political campaign. > … “The lens of religious faith”?? Right. 🙄 ---
**Author:** ![Q.Q.Switcheroo](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/q.q.switcheroo/32/5713_2.png) [@Q.Q.Switcheroo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Q.Q.Switcheroo)\ **Post date:** [July 8, 2025, 3:56pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-current-second-trump-administration-a-compendium-of-horrors/1009774/1930 "2025-07-08T15:56:40Z")
> [@ThelmaLou](#): > > “The lens of religious faith”?? Right. 🙄 “For now we see through a glass, darkly…” ---
**Author:** ![wolfpup](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/wolfpup/32/10618_2.png) [@wolfpup](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/wolfpup)\ **Post date:** [July 8, 2025, 4:06pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-current-second-trump-administration-a-compendium-of-horrors/1009774/1931 "2025-07-08T16:06:24Z")
> [@ThelmaLou](#): > > concerning electoral politics viewed through the lens of religious faith “the lens of opposition to abortion, bringing prayer back to the classroom, and general opposition to liberal heathens, praise the Lord!” I wonder what party they will tend to support? 🙄 ---
**Author:** ![DavidNRockies](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/davidnrockies/32/6279_2.png) [@DavidNRockies](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DavidNRockies)\ **Post date:** [July 8, 2025, 4:42pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-current-second-trump-administration-a-compendium-of-horrors/1009774/1932 "2025-07-08T16:42:23Z")
For those keeping score, this is Lawrence Britt’s 8th of 14 [**Characteristics of Fascism**](https://secularhumanism.org/2003/03/fascism-anyone/): > [@](#): > > **Religion and ruling elite tied together**. Unlike communist regimes, the fascist and protofascist regimes were never proclaimed as godless by their opponents. In fact, most of the regimes attached themselves to the predominant religion of the country and chose to portray themselves as militant defenders of that religion. The fact that the ruling elite’s behavior was incompatible with the precepts of the religion was generally swept under the rug. Propaganda kept up the illusion that the ruling elites were defenders of the faith and opponents of the “godless.” A perception was manufactured that opposing the power elite was tantamount to an attack on religion. As before/always, Britt wrote this paper in the Spring of 2003, when most of us had barely even heard of Donald Trump. This isn’t Monday Morning Quarterbacking. It’s based on his in-depth analysis of “the following regimes: Nazi Germany, Fascist Italy, Franco’s Spain, Salazar’s Portugal, Papadopoulos’s Greece, Pinochet’s Chile, and Suharto’s Indonesia.” ---
**Author:** ![PatrickLondon](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/patricklondon/32/4422_2.png) [@PatrickLondon](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/PatrickLondon)\ **Post date:** [July 8, 2025, 6:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-current-second-trump-administration-a-compendium-of-horrors/1009774/1933 "2025-07-08T18:53:06Z")
To which one can now add Putin’s Russia, and the likes of Orban in Hungary and the Kaczynskis in Poland. ---
**Author:** ![PatrickLondon](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/patricklondon/32/4422_2.png) [@PatrickLondon](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/PatrickLondon)\ **Post date:** [July 9, 2025, 5:55am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-current-second-trump-administration-a-compendium-of-horrors/1009774/1934 "2025-07-09T05:55:21Z")
And it isn’t necessarily the political leaders and organisations that drive the relationship: > **[‘God chose you, Jair Bolsonaro!’ Is Brazil now in the grip of evangelicals?](https://www.theguardian.com/film/2025/jul/07/god-jair-bolsonaro-brazil-evangelicals-apocalypse-in-the-tropics-christian-fundamentalists?CMP=Share_AndroidApp_Other)** > > From TV soaps to the supreme court to the top job, Christian fundamentalists are on a power-grab in the country. We meet the director of Apocalypse in the Tropics, a new film charting their rise ---
**Author:** ![bobot](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bobot/32/21622_2.png) [@bobot](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/bobot)\ **Post date:** [July 9, 2025, 11:52pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-current-second-trump-administration-a-compendium-of-horrors/1009774/1935 "2025-07-09T23:52:29Z")
Check out this insane fucking headline. > **[Trump tariffs goods from Brazil at 50%, citing 'witch hunt' trial against...](https://apnews.com/article/trump-tariffs-eu-trading-partners-letter-958bafd5f28d600eb0dd55fa8e942f64?utm_source=copy&utm_medium=share)** > > President Donald Trump is singling out Brazil for import taxes of 50%, citing its treatment of its former president, Jair Bolsonaro. ---
**Author:** ![PhillyGuy](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/ed655f/32.png) [@PhillyGuy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/PhillyGuy)\ **Post date:** [July 10, 2025, 2:04am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-current-second-trump-administration-a-compendium-of-horrors/1009774/1936 "2025-07-10T02:04:30Z")
Massive interference with the justice system of a democracy. Do we actually have a new low here? Maybe not, since Trump is massively interfering with the justice system of the United States. But it feels to me a new low. For those who haven’t been following the news from Brazil: > **[2022 Brazilian coup plot](https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/2022_Brazilian_coup_plot)** > > During and after the 2022 Brazilian presidential election, a network of members of former president Jair Bolsonaro's government and of the Brazilian Armed Forces planned to subvert the transition of power to newly elected president Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva, arrest Supreme Federal Court (STF) justice Alexandre de Moraes and President of the Federal Senate Rodrigo Pacheco, as well as shut down several government institutions, such as the National Congress, the Superior Electoral Court and the Su... ---
**Author:** ![penultima\_thule](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/penultima_thule/32/3833_2.png) [@penultima\_thule](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/penultima_thule)\ **Post date:** [July 10, 2025, 2:17am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-current-second-trump-administration-a-compendium-of-horrors/1009774/1937 "2025-07-10T02:17:00Z")
> [@](#): > > 2022 … subvert the transition of power to newly elected president One might will wonder from where they drew the inspiration? Understandably, and having standing, 45/47 has concerns about precedence. The Royal Navy’s [Articles of War](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Articles_of_War#:~:text=Every%20person%20being%20in%20actual,relative%20to%20the%20fleet%2C%20shall) are fairly strict on the penalties to be applied for mutiny. ---
**Author:** ![iamatractorboy](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/iamatractorboy/32/21261_2.png) [@iamatractorboy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/iamatractorboy)\ **Post date:** [July 10, 2025, 5:34am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-current-second-trump-administration-a-compendium-of-horrors/1009774/1938 "2025-07-10T05:34:00Z")
Surely Bolsonaro is a sucker and a loser for being caught? Unlike the genius Trump who got away with his attempt. ---
**Author:** ![Der\_Trihs](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/der_trihs/32/233_2.png) [@Der\_Trihs](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Der_Trihs)\ **Post date:** [July 10, 2025, 6:07am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-current-second-trump-administration-a-compendium-of-horrors/1009774/1939 "2025-07-10T06:07:36Z")
Trump _was_ caught; we just refused to do anything to him about it. Unlike the Brazilians. ---
**Author:** ![iamatractorboy](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/iamatractorboy/32/21261_2.png) [@iamatractorboy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/iamatractorboy)\ **Post date:** [July 10, 2025, 6:19am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-current-second-trump-administration-a-compendium-of-horrors/1009774/1940 "2025-07-10T06:19:14Z")
Oh I agree. I just meant it from Trump’s point of view, hence him being a genius. ---
**Author:** ![Cervaise](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/cervaise/32/16693_2.png) [@Cervaise](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Cervaise)\ **Post date:** [July 10, 2025, 6:22am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-current-second-trump-administration-a-compendium-of-horrors/1009774/1941 "2025-07-10T06:22:36Z")
> [@Der\_Trihs](#): > > Unlike the Brazilians. Or the French. > **[Police raid headquarters of French far-right National Rally party](https://www.theguardian.com/world/2025/jul/09/police-raid-headquarters-of-french-far-right-national-rally-party)** > > Investigation into alleged illegal campaign financing denounced by party’s leader, Jordan Bardella, as ‘harassment campaign’ [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-current-second-trump-administration-a-compendium-of-horrors/1009774.md?page=96) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-current-second-trump-administration-a-compendium-of-horrors/1009774.md?page=98)